The Nature of Friendship
by mickeylover303
Summary: In which Sai may or may not be as socially inept as he appears, and Team Seven is no longer four plus two. NarutoSasuke.
This is actually pretty old, posted on lj, the usual silliness, part of a short-lived canon type series with Sai, because I love writing him as a troll. But it really has been a while this time (kind of forgot how to use this site), so to everyone who's still been reading my stuff, thank you. Hopefully, this counts for something. Maybe? Again, it's been a while, but there are a few more things I want to finish. I kind of missed lurking in this fandom.

I guess I sort of have a tumblr now (don't know how to use that, either), but anon asked about me making one a while back, so...it's there? I seriously fail at this.

...

 **The Nature of Friendship**

"Blindfolding us, leaving us in the middle of nowhere like this, then expecting us to find our way back to Konoha in two days..." Naruto grunts, dropping the sack thrown over his shoulder on the forest floor. He plops himself beside the sack, crossing his legs. "What kind of senseless exercise is this?"

It's a rhetorical question neither Sasuke nor Sakura bother to answer. Sai, however, has no such qualms.

"To reinforce the notion of team dynamics. Both Kakashi and Yamato agree our previous attempts to date haven't been successful," he says, either ignoring or being completely oblivious to Naruto's not so soft muttering of _The only team bonding we need is to coordinate how to kick your ass out of Team Seven_.

There's a slight quirk to Sai's mouth, though, a vague hint of a smile that lends an amused glint to his eyes, yet it doesn't stay long enough for anyone to notice.

"Their reasoning, it seems," he continues, looking inside a pocket on his flak jacket, "aside from the underlying tension, can be attributed to the more frequent attempts on my life lately. Particularly the incident last weekend, when you and Sasuke left a palpable trail of killing intent while you were chasing me through the village, which in turn was the source of many complaints directed towards the Hokage for the amounting damage caused."

Covering her mouth, Sakura coughs during the wake of Sasuke's wilful silence, but Naruto meets Sai's dispassionate gaze with a glower. "Nobody asked you, all right."

"But you did."

"Come on, Naruto," Sakura says, cajoling. She smiles and kneels down beside him with her arms folded resting on top of her knees, tilting her head to the side. "The kind of thing we used to do as a team before that time, this is like that, isn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah." Easing up with a smile, Naruto scratches the top of his head. "I guess I'd just like to be sent on a real mission every once in a while. Or at least something a little more serious than this."

"With the way the last one went," Sasuke says, "I'm surprised you weren't suspended."

"Shut up, Sasuke." But Naruto says it without any malice, instead with a grin he underlines with a hidden meaning not completely lost on Sai. "You weren't the one who got stuck hanging from that tree and had those kids throwing all kinds of questionable things at you."

Sasuke snorts.

"Well, since it's already late..." Sakura slaps her hands on top of her knees and stands beside Sasuke. She looks between Naruto and Sai. "You two can set up base camp."

Linking her arm through Sasuke's, she smiles at the questioning look she receives. "We'll survey the area before it gets too dark."

Sasuke gives a slight nod, completely agreeable to letting Sakura lead him from their designated campsite, but they're only a few steps away when Naruto jumps to his feet, nearly tripping on the sack he knocked over while moving to stand.

"Hey, wait a minute. You can't make that kind of decision on your own accord. Leaving me with Sai, I never volunteered for that."

Sasuke and Sakura blink.

Sai follows suit. "What's wrong with that arrangement?"

"We should switch," Naruto says. "I can stay with Sa—"

"—kura?" Sai says, cutting Naruto off. "I wouldn't mind going with Sasuke. That is, I feel it would be a good opportunity to bring more beneficial aspects to our relationship."

Naruto narrows his eyes. "Something tells me there's a whole lot not right about the way you said that."

"Due to the unexplored dimensions of this new dynamic, Kakashi suggested I try spending more time with the person I know the least." Sai looks at Sasuke, head tilted to the side with a smile meant to defuse the suspicion obvious from Naruto's tone. "Sasuke."

Naruto scoffs. "This guy can't be serious," he mutters, tugging on the loose end of cloth to his forehead protector worn backwards. "Concerning those kinds of things, you should know better than to listen to someone like Kakashi by now. But if that's your hang-up, I don't see why you can't get to know Sasuke better from a distance."

"Training exercise or not, we're still expected to take the situation seriously," Sakura says, with a look admonishing that, alongside the nearly palpable irritation from Sasuke's glare alone, immediately causes Naruto to physically recoil. "You know it's preferable to stay in numbers, especially in an undisclosed location. I shouldn't have to remind you of that."

It's not enough to deter Naruto, however. Ignoring Sasuke's glare, seeking the support he didn't receive from Sakura, he sends Sasuke a silent plea more of a demand than a request.

Predictably, Sasuke isn't swayed, the twitch of his eye being the most apparent indication, yet Naruto again tries to appeal to Sakura to no avail.

"Yeah, I get it's a training exercise," he argues. "If that's the case, though, since it's not even a real mission, I don't see any reason we should split up at all."

Letting go of Sasuke's arm, Sakura gives Naruto a blank stare mirroring Sasuke's own. "Because it's still a training exercise," she says, speaking to him as if he were an errant child. "It'd defeat the purpose otherwise."

"Would you rather this as an alternative?" Sai says, but it's Sasuke he looks to, taking a step forward that quickly becomes two, then three. Standing in front of Sasuke, no more than a hand's width apart, he studies the carefully neutral expression he's being given. Naruto's outraged squawk a clear ringing in his ears, in a deliberate move, he carries himself closer, staring into eyes that widen in subtle alarm, when suddenly, a hand from behind yanks him back.

"What was that just now—what were you doing?"

Sai glances at Naruto beside him, to Naruto's hand that has yet to release him. After a momentary pause, his gaze returns to Naruto. "It was an attempt to be friendlier."

Naruto's grip on Sai's flak jacket becomes loose. Fingers curling around the material unfurl once more, eventually letting go, and Naruto watches Sai with a curious uncertainty not dissimilar to the expressions worn by Sasuke and Sakura. "After all this time, it's still hard for me to trust your idea of friendly."

"It wasn't my idea this time. It was Kakashi's. He insisted kissing was an acceptable way to express your intended affection for someone."

Lips pursed, ostensibly calm, Sasuke turns on Sai a glare harbouring the beginnings of a wisp the familiar cloud of killing intent.

Green eyes grow far too large for her face, despite the already generous size of her forehead, but Sakura simply stares, mouth slightly ajar, with a blush colouring her cheeks that pales in comparison to the bright red hue overwhelming Naruto's face.

"The hell, Sai—I can't believe you were just going to—you can't just do that to Sasuke." Eyes wide focused on Sasuke, Naruto whirls back around with a reproving finger aimed at Sai. "You _cannot_ kiss Sasuke."

Sasuke and Sakura release a collective sigh, the dark aura surrounding Sasuke curtailed for the time being in favour of exasperation.

"I was told to follow your example," Sai says.

"Didn't I tell you to stop listening to Kakashi so much? Nothing good can ever come out of taking advice from an old man who's trapped under the delusion that he's still young."

"Yet I've seen you kiss Sasuke numerous times. Is that not how you show your affection? I simply assumed—"

"Don't you think about what I do to Sasuke," Naruto splutters. "The things I want to do to Sasuke, I have permission to do the things I want to do to Sasuke. So if I want to kiss Sasuke—"

Bringing himself to an abrupt pause, eyebrows knit together in thought, he looks at Sasuke from over his shoulder. "I still have permission after this, right?"

Two fingers rise to massage his temple, and again, Sasuke sighs, closing his eyes at Sakura's hand rubbing his arm in a sympathetic gesture more akin to pity meant to console.

Taking advantage of Naruto's distraction, Sai approaches Sasuke for a second time. "Do I have your permission to—"

"Not when he's already taken!" Arms outstretched, Naruto throws his body in front of a visibly annoyed Sasuke, who shoves him to the side without remorse.

"Sakura," Sai says, turning away from Naruto and Sasuke bickering, "will you give me permission to— "

"If you even think for a second I'd ever let you kiss me..." Sympathy for Sasuke forgotten, Sakura clenches her fingers against her palm, ominous expression adding to the already increasingly strong waves of killing intent radiating behind Sai. Her arm draws back, chakra pooling into her fist, but a seething Naruto's already there, placing himself between her and Sai.

"You're not kissing Sakura, either! You don't just go around trying to kiss people like that!"

"Should I kiss you then?"

There's an intermittent series of faint crackling coming from Sasuke. A flicker of light illuminates his face eclipsed by dark hair the veil shadowing his eyes.

Giving him a wide berth, slowly, Sakura begins to step back, distancing herself from the high shrieks of lightning emanating from Sasuke's hand.

Naruto squeaks, shielding himself with hands held out in frantic motions. "No— _no_ , you can't kiss me, either!"

Head cocked to the side, Sai looks past Naruto, glancing at Sakura then settling on Sasuke. "Or would it be more acceptable if Sasuke and I were to re-enact Konohamaru's demonstration of your sexy techni—"

With a loud cry that could surely be heard in Suna, Naruto launches himself at Sai.

Already anticipating the reaction, Sai retreats to the safety of the large tree behind him, perched on a branch high above his teammates as he peers down at a prostrate Naruto quickly picking himself up from the ground.

"Yeah, you better run." Hands forming the seals to release a dozen or so shadow clones, Naruto scowls, taking off after Sai and chasing him further into the forest. "Come back here, you damn perverted bastard!"

The sound of his voice begins to fade in the distance, alongside a blur of orange and grey disappearing among the green of the trees.

Sasuke frowns, curiosity from Sai's words seemingly enough to subdue any previous inclination to maim Sai. He looks to Sakura, who simply smiles, feigning ignorance to her knowledge of Konohamaru's display of a certain compromising position between Sasuke and Sai that did in fact give her a nosebleed.

The hell if she's going to be the one to have that conversation with him.

There's a moment of quiet brief between them, interrupted by the soft chirping of cicadas quickly becoming the background to another loud yell from Naruto threatening to disembowel Sai that echoes throughout the forest area.

Sasuke looks towards the direction of Naruto's voice. He looks back to Sakura, watching her with a spoiled kind of expectancy she blames entirely on Naruto's tendency to give into him too much.

"Honestly," she says, drawing out a sigh relaying an exasperation that shouldn't feel so commonplace, "you don't want to know."

He nods with a soft hum, accepting her lack of explanation without the fuss she would have expected from the Sasuke she once knew. Then again, he'll probably find a way to get it out of Naruto later. Something she doesn't want any part of. It's bad enough the two of them nearly destroyed her kitchen last month.

No Sai involved, either.

"You're not going to stop Naruto?" Sasuke raises an eyebrow, the small but very real possibility that Sai might end up convulsing on the ground somewhere out there being left unsaid.

Neither does he mention the small but very real possibility that Naruto might end up being flown into the sunset, dangling upside down from the leg of one of Sai's giant birds.

Again.

Aside from the few times the responsibility's fallen to Sasuke, Sakura's usually designated to play the role of mediator for Team Seven. Except when it's a lost cause. Which it often is.

Like now.

"Are you?"

With a grunt, Sasuke looks down, turning his palm face up to examine the dirt beneath his nails that out of the blue seems so fascinating.

"Those two, drawing so much attention to themselves," Sakura murmurs, kneeling next to Naruto's sack and digging through it for their tent supplies. "I'm starting to feel Sai does that kind of thing on purpose."

Kneeling down beside her, with a scoff, Sasuke reaches out to accept the scroll she hands to him. "You think?"

"With the way we keep falling for it, especially Naruto..." Giving a small shake of her head, Sakura takes out another scroll. "I doubt they'll be coming back any time soon, so I guess we're stuck here.

"Not that I mind, of course," she says quickly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "At least it'll give us a chance to catch up. Seeing that a certain someone seems to occupy so much of your time lately."

Sasuke gives her a meaningful look, the subtle gleam in his eyes teasing. "You mean Neji?"

Letting out a soft peal of laughter, Sakura retaliates with a playful shove on his shoulder. "Anyway, when those two do get back, do you think we should tell them Konoha's only—"

"No."

Sakura snorts, but an amused little smile slips from her lips. "Well, as far as team bonding goes," she says, "at least Sai stopped calling me Ugly."


End file.
